Finally, the Puritan was sustained in his conquest of a wilderness by an ever-present and intimate sense of the leadership of God. His religion, like that of Israel, was often exclusive, partial, and narrow; but, like that of Israel, it was intense, continuous, and supreme. The principal reason of his great adventure was, as he said, "the inward zeal he had of laying some good foundation for the propagating of the kingdom of Christ in these remote parts of the world." But, in these more favored days, what has become of that living, simple sense of God which guided daily life among our forefathers, as if by a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night? Sometimes one comes out of a frosty night into a genial, firelit room, and his energy slackens as he settles himself into that warmth and peace. Is it not somewhat so that we have come out of the spiritual energy of that frosty past into the genial conditions of the present time? The Puritan's faith, like his climate, was harsh; but it was bracing. The Puritan's God, like his soul, was hard; but, at least, it was a God who made man do his duty when that duty

also was hard. The Puritan religion was described some years ago under the title of the "Hard Church;" and it is a great blessing to have emerged from that stern literalism of the lesser Puritanism. But is it not time to face the perils of the "Soft Church," the unvertebrated creed, the molluscous liberalism, which consents to any faith because all faith seems to it unreal? The Soft Church is not promoting free thought, but free thoughtlessness; it stands not for liberty, but for license. It is often very broad, but it is always very thin. Out of the historic past the greater Puritanism recalls us to the stability of character wrought out of responsibility to God. The fear of the Lord is still the beginning of wisdom; and whatever better things may be prepared for us in these later days will slip from our hands, and the nation whose prosperity has been unexampled in the history of the world will forfeit its own mission, unless a new degree of soberness and accountability administers its politics and controls its heart.

Thus from among the abundant blessings of to-day we look back to that simple, duty

doing, God-fearing past. There was but one rock in Plymouth Bay, and the Pilgrims drew their boat beside it as they possessed the land. We enter more richly into that great possession; but on the rugged boulder of simplicity and duty and faith the feet of those who would hold this heritage must first be set. The Puritan spirit was like one of those bulbs which this country imports, as it did Puritanism, from Holland, in its dull, rough husk, with no perceptible grace or fragrance. Set it, however, in the sun of the later centuries, and that rough stalk blossoms into a flower which would have seemed to the Puritan almost too fair. So the blessings of the present have their root in that sterner past. We do not outgrow the past we grow out of it. First come the severe virtues of the forefathers; and then, and only then, the softer graces of the modern age. First the lesser Puritanism of form and letter, then the greater Puritanism of spirit and truth. First the primitive College of plain living and high thinking, and then, resting on that precious tradition of simplicity and integrity, the richer learning

of the later time. First the character of those who, not having attained the promise, still died in faith, and then the better things which are prepared for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

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XIV

RELIGION IN THIS PRESENT WORLD

For the grace of God hath appeared, . . . instructing us, that . . . we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world.-Titus ii. 11, 12.

RHESE three words
"righteously," "godly'

soberly," sum up

the New Testament statement of a well-rounded character. Soberly as regards one's self, righteously as regards one's neighbors, godly as regards one's religion, that is the complete description of the Christian life. But the Apostle goes on to say that this kind of life is to be lived "in this present world," under the conditions of the world as it now is. To him, an essential part of the Christian life is its relation to its own time. It must be a life in its own world as well as a life in eternity. Would the Apostle have said this if he had lived now? Is this a good time for a sober, righteous, and godly life? Can one expect to be a man of this present age, moved by its tendencies, marked by its traits, and yet with the sobriety and righteous